Somewhere in the woods surrounding an apartment complex in Greenville, S.C., lurks a group of clowns who have tried to lure children to join them, according to residents of a local apartment complex.
“There have been several conversations and a lot of complaints to the office regarding a clown or a person dressed in clown clothing talking to children or trying to lure children into the woods,” states a letter written last week by the property management company that owns the Fleetwood Manor apartments in Greenville. “At no times should a child be alone at night, or walking in the roads or wooded area at night.”
Donna Arnold, who lives in Fleetwood Manor and received the letter, spoke to WGHP about the clown news.
“I thought my child was seeing things,” she said. “And then the next day I had about 30 kids come up to me and say, ‘Did you see the clown in the woods?”
BuzzFeed News obtained a police report filed by a woman living in the complex, who said her son claims he had “seen clowns in the woods whispering and making strange noises.” Later, the woman said she went to investigate and “observed several clowns in the woods flashing green laser lights [who] then ran away into the woods.”
The report also quoted a woman who said she “saw a clown with a blinking nose, standing under a post light near the garbage dumpster area. She stated the suspect waved at her and she waved back while she made her way to her residence safely. The suspect did not approach her or harm her.”
The report mentions that many children from the apartment complex “believe the clowns stay in a house located near a pond at the end of a man-made [trail] in the woods.”
Donna Arnold’s husband, James, told BuzzFeed that the rash of clowns haunting their neighborhood is by far the most frightening thing residents have experienced. “This is one of the neighborhoods where guys are walking around carrying guns,” he said. “But we’ve had no clowns before.”
As of Friday evening, four Greenville County Sheriff’s Deputies were patrolling the area for clowns.
